Aaron has played for Preston North End football club since he was first signed to them at the age of 9. He also regularly trains with the North Wales Regional Squad and was selected for matches against South Wales and Manchester United. He was also selected to play for Hyndburn Town Under 11’s when they won both the county cup and league.

Trinity Woodman

School Rhyddings School

Trinity competes in rhythmic gymnastics and trains 5 or 6 times a week with Ribble Valley acrobatic academy in Blackburn and helps to coach the younger children. She competes in the national quintet team, and at the time of writing is currently placed 4th In the league. She also came 4th in the club and ball routines in the solo North West and open championships.

Hope Faraday

School Longridge School

Hope has been performing ballroom, classical and modern sequence dancing

for the last few years. She competes at both national and international level and came 4th in the 12-13 year age range in the World Sequence Dancing in 2016. She also came 1st in ballroom in an under 16 national competition. She's represented the NW of England for the British Team at the last 2 World championships.

Eleesha Charmley

School Ribblesdale High School

Eleesha is a very talented young sportswoman. She has represented the Under 13 Youth Development League

and Mid Lancs Athletics for Blackburn

and Blackpool. She trains every evening and at weekends she plays for a variety

of clubs in a number of different sports including tennis and swimming.

Pictured here with her Mum and Peter

and Shelagh Bagshaw.

Joseph Crawford

School St Christopher’s High School

Joseph is the 3 time England Boxing Northwest Champion in 3 different

weight categories. Selected to box for

a NW of England boxing team as their champion, he won against the reigning unbeaten Scottish Schoolboy champion. He was selected to represent England in the GB TRI-NATIONS 2016 tournament winning a silver medal in the Final. Joe is now ranked No 2 in Great Britain.

Connor Hargreaves

School Longridge School

Connor competes at local and national level in Moto Cross on 250 CC level motorbikes.

Norden High School

Nominated four performing arts enthusiasts to receive their Make A Difference Award (Lewis Nield-Ali, Ashley Alderson, Rebecca North and Marley Harrington above). Peter and Shelagh were invited to watch them perform together in a production of Romeo and Juliet at Thwaite’s Empire Theatre in Blackburn. We have since been told that Lewis recently went for his biggest audition so far and won a part in A Christmas Carol at Preston Guild/Charter Theatre.

Liam Jones

School St Augustine's School

Liam has been dancing for over three years and during this time he has taken part in various competitions including two in Disneyland Paris. Liam also performs regularly in shows in local theatres.

Hailie Ashton

School St Augustine's School

Hailie has been identified as having a special talent for running. Her award will give access to an athletics club to give

her the opportunity to develop her talent.

Ella Blackledge

School St Augustine's School

Ella competes in Ju-Jitsu at a European standard, winning a Gold Medal in a competition in Spain last year. Her award will help her to attend monthly performance sessions and residential trips required to compete at the highest level.

Niamh Yates

School St Augustine's School

Niamh is a talented Irish Dancer. She recently finished forth in a North West Regional competition, cementing her place in the World Championships in Dublin next year! Niamh dedicates many hours to training at the Loughran School of Irish Dancing in Liverpool.

Alasdair Moir

School Clitheroe Royal Grammar School

Alasdair competes at a national level in modern pentathlon events. He has qualified for the schools’ national biathlon final in London. To make further progress, he needs to start competing in the 5th pentathlon discipline of horse-riding and his award will contribute towards the cost of this.

Sophie Wilkinson

School Clitheroe Royal Grammar School

Sophie has been spotted as having a potential for rock-climbing and her award will contribute towards the cost of equipment and tuition.

Sam Sherratt

School Clitheroe Royal Grammar School

Sam is a national champion basketball player who dreams of being a professional. He completes 10 hours training per week. His award will contribute towards the cost of his frequent journeys to and from Manchester for practice.

Lucy Cocker

School Clitheroe Royal Grammar School

Lucy has a talent for photography and wishes to become a photo-journalist in the future. Her award will contribute towards the purchase of a DSLR camera.

Chloe Wilson

School Clitheroe Royal Grammar School

Chloe is a very talented musician who is working towards her flute first level performance diploma. Her award will contribute towards the cost of tuition.

In 2016, Dan’s Trust helped a local family from Lancashire. Archie is 8 years old and has rare genetic syndrome called

Cri-du-chat syndrome. This means that he has low muscle tone, global development delay, learning difficulties and

no speech. Despite this, he is full of life! He has two brothers aged 5 & 2, who look up to their big brother, but can't

always play with him.

Dan’s Trust supported Archie's family with the purchase

of a specialist custom made trike to help him with balance, co-ordination and muscle tone. However, most importantly this trike allows Archie to be part of the family, be outside and be able to play with his brothers.

“This is our son Archie, who thanks to the incredible generosity of Dan's Trust has just received this amazing trike. Archie was born with Cri du chat Syndrome and we were told he might never walk let alone ride a bike, so I can only tell you how happy we are, and he is, to have the opportunity to ride with this adapted bike. Thanks to you all so much for your fund raising and I hope the smile on Archie’s face will keep you going when it gets tough”.

Lisa & Matt (Archie's Mum and Dad)

Archie and family

Ethan Naisbitt

With investment from Dan's Trust, Accrington based swimmer, Ethan Naisbitt, aged 12 continues to break his personal bests and is training towards the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics Games and represents The North West Disability Squad, based at the Manchester Aquatics Centre.

Over the past two years Ethan has progressed from Club to County to Regional competition and this year he participated in his first International event. In the North West, Ethan is currently ranked number 1 & 2 in varying strokes in his age

& classification and ranked between 11th and 17th in the country. He trains incredibly hard and we are very proud of him and his dedication.

“Over the last two years Ethan has progressed

from Club to Regional to County and this year got

into an International event.... Without your support all this would not be possible.”

Jessica trains at and competes for the Burnley Gymnastics Club. Her proudest moment to date was in November 2016 when she was entered into the Lancashire Red Rose Competition in Garstang. Jessica competed against some of the best gymnasts in Lancashire, winning a number of medals and was the Overall Champion for her age group. She trains for 12-15 hours a week and loves every minute of it!

Lewis Frobisher

School Thomas Whitham Sixth Form

Lewis dances at Sanderson's Dance and Fitness Centre in Nelson, and travels the country every weekend to take part in regional and national competitions with his dance partner Katie Bodell. The young dance partnership have proved to be very successful, recently winning The English, UK, Midland Gold Cup and South of England championships in the amateur age group.

Tegan Davies

School Accrington Academy

Tegan Davies is a 16 year old "Judoka" who has been participating in the sport of Judo for three years. She currently holds the bronze british medal, a bronze international medal and is ranked 8th in GB and is in the England national squad. She gained her blackbelt at the minimum age of 15 and is pictured here with double Olympian Sophie Cox.

Sean Boulter

School Accrington Academy

From a very young age Sean has shown a natural flare for dancing. He is a member of the school dance teams and trains and competes outside of school.

Emily Rolfe

School Accrington Academy

Emily is a hardworking and talented dancer and actress who has ambitions to excel in the performing arts.